m u s i c ??

hurts to pee with my kidney stone

grubs in the dirt

im an introvert

Week 1 of Mermay! I’m having so much fun drawing mermaids it’s incredible~ ^^ All pieces done with copic and ink. <3

Lingthusiasm Episode 19: Sentences with baggage - Presuppositions

What’s so weird if I say, “the present King of France is bald” or “I need to pick up my pet unicorn from the vet”? It seems like those sentences should be false: at least, they certainly can’t be true. But if you reply, “No, he isn’t” or “No, you don’t” it still feels unsatisfying: aren’t we still both assuming that France has a king and that I have a pet unicorn? 

In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch explore different kinds of meanings: sometimes sentences wear their meaning on their sleeves, but sometimes they instead smuggle it in as baggage. These assumptions are known as presuppositions. Presuppositions are incredibly useful (we couldn’t manage conversations at a normal pace without them), but in the wrong hands (such as when you’re trying to influence an eyewitness) they can also be very dangerous. 

This month’s bonus episode on Patreon is about memes, poetry, and mock-old English: Roses are red / Violets are dreams / In this episode / We talk poems and memes. 

We also announced a new round of Lingthusiasm merch: you can now get scarves with a subtle tree diagram print suitable for all your language family tree/syntax tree and other structural needs, and t-shirts, mugs, totes, and pouches with Heck Yeah Descriptivism or Heck Yeah Language Change on them, as well as the existing IPA scarves and NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT items in more colours! 

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

New Lingthusiasm merch: pictures of the new tree diagram scarves, Heck Yeah Language Change/Heck Yeah Descriptivism items, and existing items in new colours

Presupposition in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries

The King of France

Your favourite etymological dictionary

Denying things with presupposition in Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Why do people want to eat babies? (it’s called playful aggression/cute aggression)

Accents and presupposition

Emily Bender picking apart a presupposition (Twitter)

Big Bird presupposition (Twitter)

“welcome back” on a neighbourhood pub sign (Sherry Yong Chen, Twitter)

Boasting through presuppositions (Julie Sedivy on Language Log)

Leading questions and the eyewitness report (paper by Elizabeth Loftus, pdf)  

Memory influenced by implanting presuppositions (Elizabeth Allyn Smith on Télé-Québec, video in French)

Presupposition (Wikipedia)

Presupposition (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Presuppositions, Implicatures, and Entailments (The Ling Space)

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, iTunes, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website. To received an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

You can help keep Lingthusiasm advertising-free by supporting our Patreon. Being a patron gives you access to bonus content and lets you help decide on Lingthusiasm topics.

Lingthusiasm is on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

In France, it is now forbid to have runway models with a BMI under 18. This is due to the belief that underweight models glamorize an unhealthy and malnourished appearance.

Meanwhile, in the US, plus-sized model Tess Holliday is plastered all over the internet and on magazines as well, and has a BMI of 46. I read a Buzzfeed article on her a few months ago. The article highlighted how empowering her story was, and that she was a self-confidence inspiration to many other plus-sized women. When I looked at the comments of this article, they were all positive, with a few exceptions. These exceptions included comments like, “This is clearly not healthy! There’s no way you can weight that much and be healthy!” These were quickly addressed by other commenters who added things like, “You’re not her doctor, you don’t know her cholesterol levels or how much she exercises!”

If plus-sized modeling was banned in the US, people would go berserk. It would be “oppressing, discriminatory, unfair,” etc.,

But I have not seen a single post where tumblr has lost their minds since France has banned thin models. Why?

Because this website loves to preach body acceptance, but exclusively to those who have felt discrimination in the past. If plus-sized models are allowed, so should thin models. Or if thin models are banned, plus-sized models should be as well. One doesn’t get to pick and choose which way the so-called “acceptance movement” sways, because you’re either for it, or your not.